Gaurav Sagar’s Reviews > Madonna in a Fur Coat > Status Update

Neither of us spoke. And how I savoured that silence, even as I ate myself up, rack-ing my brain for something to say. But my beautiful thoughts had deserted me. The more I searched for them, the more my mind emptied out, until it was nothing more than a throbbing, piteous piece of meat. But when I glanced over at her, I saw not a trace of agitation. She had her dark eyes fixed on the ground before her.

I was still taking German lessons from the army officer three evenings a week. I spent my days visiting museums and newly opened galleries. Returning to the pension in the even-ing, I'd catch my first whiff of cabbage from a distance of a hundred paces. But I was no longer as bored as I'd been in the early months. For now I was slowly learning to read properly in German and this gave me great pleasure.